In Small-Town Germany, a Reporter Sees the Bigger Picture

New York Times

a day ago

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As a reporter on the Obituaries desk at The New York Times, I write about the lives of famous — and not so famous — people who have left their mark on history. I also speak German, which is why I found myself spending the month of May in Berlin, filling in for a colleague.
Before I left, I worked with a tutor to polish my conversational skills. I asked her if she had any fun ideas for articles I could pursue.
'Well, you know,' she said, 'the city of Bielefeld? Everyone says it doesn't exist.'
About 300,000 people live in Bielefeld, but I'll admit that I was only vaguely aware it existed.
To Germans, Bielefeld is the equivalent of, say, Scranton or Cedar Rapids — cities where the best you can say about them may be that you can't think of anything bad to say. For much the same reason that Scranton was the setting for 'The Office,' Bielefeld had become the butt of a joke.
Like many jokes these days, it started online, though this one began back in 1993. It came in the form of a goofy conspiracy theory: that the existence of Bielefeld is a sham, and anyone who says otherwise is in on the plot.
Over time, the town became a byword for boring. Songs were written about its utter blandness, including one performed by a talking slice of bread named Bernd — this is Germany, after all.
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